 Roy Reehil,
Mayor
Village of Cleveland, NY
February 1995 to July 2002The
Mayor's Archives
After serving for seven and a half years,
I did not seek re-election and instead decided to "term-limit" myself.
I'm now maintaining the pages for
posterity.
The articles are aging but the information about the village and village issues --
especially village dissolution issues -- may be of interest to other village
representatives in NY state.
About
Cleveland | 2000 Census Statistics
From the Mayor's Desk Articles
How I Became Mayor
Back to Roy's Home Page
The
Mayor's FAQ
(The Most Frequently Asked Questions while I was Mayor)
Did you run as a
Democrat or a Republican?
Neither, and at this level
of government what difference does it make. We have 760 year-round residents. Being mayor
is personal here and people should be judged by the things they do and the example they
set. Anyway, why take half of the local population and set them against you for some
arbitrary set of preconceived notions? I want to reel people into the process, not
alienate them. I made up a party name -- The Fairness Party -- and that's what I tried to
be, fair. We need to hear everyone's voices and solicit every willing volunteer's help to
make the the village better, safer, cleaner... to make it as good as it can be.
Why do it? What is it
like to be the Mayor?
The position of Mayor in the Village of
Cleveland is a part-time position with a lot of different hats to wear. Manager,
accountant, diplomat and legal expert! I was the chief fiscal officer in charge of
developing and presenting a budget to the Board of Trustees, and the buck stopped on my
desk for management of the Dept. of Public Works including the water and sewer systems. It
was a great challenge and often a rollercoaster ride of problems and solutions. It was
also one of the most gratifying jobs I've ever had. If you haven't volunteered your time
to your community, a church, a not for profit organization or a charity recently, it's
hard to understand the joy of working for a good cause. Simply doing a good job as mayor
was a great reward unto itself. I assume that was part of the reason that I was honored
with the job by my peers for over seven years. There is plenty of good work that needs to
be done in this world and our children will be inspired by the examples we set. There's
just not enough of that happening these days.
I encourage everyone to set a good
example and volunteer in your community if you're not already. It will do you and the
community a bit of good!
Did you get a lot of phone calls
in the middle of the night?
I've never had a call too late at
night, but I did get calls now and then.
When people called they usually had a relevant concern that needed to be
addressed. In fact, people were usually surprised at how easy it was to address some of
the problems they had. There are many occasions where we simply hadn't been aware of a
given situation. Once we knew about a problem we could address it. Most of all I tried to
be fair and open minded as Mayor. I tried to address concerns as swiftly and fairly
as possible. That's the job!
I wrote these articles to explain my
positions on important village topics. Here are several of those articles and newsletters.
-Roy Reehil, Former Mayor
Village of Cleveland, New York
Good news about
the cemetery vandalism repairs, Sept. 2001
2001 -2002 Budget Announcement
Pictures:
Addressing concern and confusion about some of our village laws, June
1998
Village Press Releases, New Budget and Elections, May 1998
Memorial Day Weekend Vandalism, May 1998
Tabling the proposed nuisance animal control law, Feb. 1998
Refuting a pollution and negligence law suit, May 1996
The Village News, Spring 1995: An Introduction & Dissolution
Issues
The Dissolution Petition
Memorial Day 1995
New Budget Reduces Taxes
Labor Day 1995
Optimism in November 1995
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